When Murata receives a letter written by Daikenja and he has no recollection of ever writing it, he has to consider if he wants to open it or not. [YozakxMurata, DaikenjaxShinou, JosexChristine. FINISHED]

The Shinou
and lord von Bielefelt were bloodied and muddied and quite possibly
exhausted and, yet, they were sitting side by side, drinking from the
same alcohol bottle, laughing and telling stories to the equally
injured and tired soldiers. It worked, too: the men that were hearing
about how once Shinou and Ruffas had convinced a whole pub that lord
von Bielefelt was a woman were just about to roll over the floor with
laughter. Even lord von Wincott seemed to be trying to keep from
laughing out loud.

By his side, lord von Voltaire snorted,
wiping his face with a partially clean rag.

"I won't ever
understand how they can be so energetic, and then, at the next
second, drop sleeping at the wink of a bearbee." The tall man
muttered, tying his still wet hair again.

Daikenja smiled,
even though he was also looking towards the two blond men who were
still distracting the soldiers from their fears and pain.

"I
suppose its just part of their charm."

"Or of the fact
that they're probably missing a couple of brain cells," von
Voltaire muttered, before giving him an almost mischievous smile.
"With all due respect, of course, Highness."

He smiled, a
silent laughter shaking his shoulders in mirth. "Of course."

"We
probably wouldn't love them as much without that, right?"

Daikenja
turned to look at the other man, but he had turned once again to look
towards their king and one of his nobleman, eyes full of tender care
and something more. Daikenja closed his eyes for a moment before he
too darted his eyes towards them.

"Perhaps." Was all his
answer.

Von Voltaire gave a loft sigh but didn't comment. He
was too respectful to say what he thought. Lord von Bielefelt wasn't:
he had said to him quite clearly what he felt for the Shinou and what
he should do before he decided that Great Sage or not, he was an
idiot.

He knew then, without a doubt, that von Voltaire was
aware of Ruffas feelings, even if the other lord wasn't aware of
his.

The tall warrior yawned and bowed his head towards him.
"If you'll excuse me, Highness, I think I'm going to send
Ruffas to sleep, or he'll be biting off the heads of everybody
tomorrow."

He didn't expect for his answer, already
walking towards the – by now – probably drunk lords and hauled
sir Ruffas over his shoulder, bowing his head towards the king and
walking towards the tents. Shinou laughed him and Ruffas off, and
then turned his clear eyes towards him.

Daikenja saw the
silent question there, clearer than he could read the change of the
wind and maryoku in the world, and he bowed his head and turned
around.

-…-…-…-

It was an extremely old envelope.
Very well preserved thanks to maryoku, especially if you considered
that it was almost four thousand years old, but it showed the way
time had went through in it's yellowed parchment, the ancient
letters in which it was written, and, especially, over the name it
displayed as the author of it and the unbroken wax seal that held it
closed.

Murata wondered, out of possibly-not-healthy
curiosity, just how many people in the universe were able to receive
a letter from themselves that was dated 3, 562 years before you had
been born. He could perhaps write a sci-fi book on the subject, now
that he thought about it. It'd be a good movie, too.

"What
do you mean, you don't remember?" Yuuri asked, a confused frown
on his face. By the looks of it, he wasn't the only one, and that
wasn't a very common situation.

For once, Murata felt
exactly the same way Shibuya did. He didn't enjoy the feeling in
the least, and he made a mental note to try and terrorize him
soon.

"I…" Murata shook his head, still holding the
fragile envelope as if it could explode. For all he knew, for all he
remembered, it might. "I don't know. I've no recollection of
writing that letter."

"How's that possible?" Wolfram
asked, frowning. Murata turned to look towards the blond prince and
then towards the letter again and refrained from shrugging.

"If
the former Great Sage thought that the knowledge might've been
dangerous, or that the even he was fortelling ought to happen, he
might have blocked the memory, and then sent a warning or…"

"I… I'm not sure." Murata
conceded, turning again to look at the envelope, as if, without
opening it, it could provide some answers.

Gwendal's frown
deepened. "Then it needs to be opened immediately."

Murata
gave a slow nod. Since he really didn't remember what the letter
might have written, there could be a threat to Shin Makoku, something
he truly didn't remember. And still, there was a mild apprehensive
feeling over the whole situation. Murata was aware that he didn't
know everything in the world; he had never wanted that kind of
knowledge. However, not being able to know something of his previous
life made him extremely wary.

Conrad's soft voice
interrupted his thoughts, then. "Perhaps your Highness would like
some time to think?"

Once, when he had been Daikenja, he had
thought that he ought to gift some kind of statue, land or formal
acknowledgment to the Weller family. Murata seriously thought about
it again as he gave a curt nod to the people reunited, ignored the
questions that started and stood up and went out of the room to try
and find somewhere to think, still carrying the
letter.

-…-…-…-

Christine tried not to laugh at
the way Jose was currently trying to make a toddler smile. The
toddler in question was blinking ever so slowly at the strange man
that was doing faces to him, and then turning to look at her. He was
just about to cry, too, big black eyes wide and partially frightened.
His mother, besides the examination table, was gushing worriedly that
they were traveling the baby's father and that the baby had been
crying every night, something that had been unusual because he was a
very good baby. The woman was a new mother, and her worry was
extremely sweet.

Christine finally moved silently towards
Jose's desk and opened his drawer, taking out a lollipop and waving
it a bit. The toddler squealed in delight and clapped his hands,
making grabby hands towards her. She couldn't quite see Jose's
triumphant expression, but she had to bite her lower lip as to not
laugh as he quickly checked upon the toddler.

"Your baby's
perfectly healthy." Jose told to the toddler's mother, carrying
the boy that was now happily sucking on his candy, handing him to his
mother. "He's just teething. Here's the name of a medicine that
might help him if it gets too uncomfortable."

"Thank you
so much, doctor!" The young woman sighed, relieved, giving a tender
smile at the baby that made Christine, who was watching from the
door, ache in bittersweet wanting of something that, in this
lifetime, wasn't meant to happen. "I'm so sorry I bothered
you."

"It's no bother at all." Jose grinned, patting
the baby's head, who still was to immersed over his candy to do
anything else other than gurgle. "It's nice to take care of such
healthy babies! And cute, too!"

The woman beamed. "Thank
you so much! We'll be going then, doctor."

"Of course,
Mrs. Shibuya!" Jose smiled, waving the woman and her son goodbye.
"Have a nice trip back home!"

Once Jose closed the door to
his clinic, Christine walked towards him, wrapping her arms around
his waist, leaning his face against his arm.

"That was
sweet of you to do," she said kindly, and then she grinned.
"Missing the movie you've wanted to see to check up on a crying
baby."

Jose's face fell at that as he turned over her
arms, a pout over his face that made him giggle. "Well… there's
always tomorrow, I guess… I'll just have to try and see if I get
some tickets."

Christine sighed, tiptoeing to brush her lips
against his. "I still fail to see what's so amazing about this
movie. 'Star Wars'. Don't we have enough wars already to have
to go and see this one too?"

"That's not all!" Jose
said. "There's also this whole exploring other worlds, and the
other creatures that live in the universe."

She, who had
memories of distant wars as present as everyday memories, and that
would've been more than happy to stay at home and be happy, the
part of her that was genuinely her, shook her head. "Other
worlds might not be that amazing. They might be exactly like this
one, or worse."

Jose looked at her, a slight frown over his
face. He wasn't angry; Jose seldom was, he was just trying to
understand her words. He knew there was something she wasn't
telling him, knew her well enough to know that it was something
important, but he didn't press, probably waiting for her to make up
her mind on her own.

Everyday it hurt to think that she
couldn't.

"Life's too short to think like that." Jose
said finally, his face alight again with a smile. He reached to her
face, tucking her hair behind her ear softly, leaning to kiss her
softly. "If we keep on worrying about what might happen, we'll
end up not doing anything."

She smiled at his words,
snuggling close to him, and then muttered. "We're still going to
see it, right?"

"Yeap." Jose was grinning now, she knew.
She pretended to roll her eyes at first, and then smiled too.

-…-…-…-

Murata had been staring to the envelope
so much that, if there had been any justice in the world, it would've
burned to the ground instead of mocking him with its curly dedication
in front of him.

"To my future incarnation; Daikenja."

Murata was very close to cursing his previous life, something
that hadn't happened too often in the last few years. He had come
to a realization that, even if he didn't like Daikenja's
decisions, it was a little too late to change them and, also, as much
as he had hated them, they had been necessary. Even more: cursing
Daikenja pretty much meant cursing himself.

Right now,
however, he wanted to know if the man had taken some kind of
amusement from torturing his future reincarnations, or just why he
hadn't been clever enough to leave some kind of clue as to what
would the topic of the letter be about.

He knew that the man
wouldn't have left anything useless and that it was quite possibly
something important, but he couldn't shake the feeling of doubts
over it. If that was the idea of his previous self about warning, he
wished someone would have given him proper lessons.

"Now,
this is a surprise, Highness." Murata blinked away from the
envelope in far too long, shielding his eyes of the sunset with a
hand, answering Yozak's smile with one of his own, even if it was a
little distracted. If Yozak noticed, the spy said nothing as he sat
down next to him at the balcony he had taken shelter. "I would've
thought that after giving Lord von Voltaire three new wrinkles, you'd
be at the temple."

"Were you looking for me?" Murata
asked, turning to look at Yozak, who just shrugged, but he was still
smiling.

"Kinda. You've been gone an awfully long time
without the proper escort, Highness." Murata couldn't help but
grin at Yozak's words.

"And that proper escort are
you?"

"Escort? Yes. Proper? Probably not. Your call,
Highness." Yozak gave him a lazy grin and Murata chuckled, closing
his eyes to let the warmth of the sunset to wash over him and try to
relieve his doubts.

"You shouldn't worry so much,
Highness." Yozak said. When he opened his eyes again, Yozak was
grinning, but he could see the concern over blue eyes. "You'll
wrinkle. We already have his Excellency sir von Voltaire for that. He
might feel left out if you start too."

Murata chuckled
again, unable to stop himself from picturing him wearing the same
clothes Gwendal did. Apparently, Yozak had thought the same because
he let out an extremely accidental snigger.

"I'll keep it
in mind." Murata said after they both had calmed down somewhat,
wiping his eyes. "Then, I'll give my verdict later."

"What
about giving it over the town?" Yozak asked. Murata opened his eyes
and turned to see him. The sun seemed to melt Yozak's hair, and his
grin was infectious. "I know a great place where we could go. You
know, for you to relax. Have some fun."

It was tempting,
very tempting. He showed Yozak the letter, even if he was aware that,
by now, Yozak knew everything about the fact. "I got this
today."

Yozak spared a glance to the letter, noticing that
the seal was still over it, and then looked at him, raising an
eyebrow. "And you've not opened it because…" Yozak drawled,
hoping for him to finish it. When he didn't, Yozak continued. "It
has really unbecoming pictures? 'cause I gotta tell you, Highness,
everybody has those. Or embarrassing secrets? Gossip? Daikenja's
will?"

Murata smiled, even though he kept his eyes closed.
"I've no idea. I'm not sure I want to open it."

"You're
not curious?"

"I am." He agreed, turning the thing over
his fingers.

"But you don't want to deal what it has
written inside." Yozak translated. Sometimes, Murata was really
grateful of the way Yozak seemed to understand him. Sometimes,
however, it was mildly annoying to have someone that could read you
so well. He hummed his agreement, tempted to make a paper plane out
of the envelope. "Is it important?"

There was that, but he
was also pretty certain that people wouldn't believe him that he
had no idea about whatever the letter was talking about. He had been
lucky enough to have them understand his reasons once. He wasn't
sure he wanted to risk it twice.

Yozak looked at him, then at the letter, then at him
again and he shrugged.

"I don't know, Highness." Yozak
answered before he moved to stand up. He put his hand against his
shoulder a moment, giving a comforting squeeze. "But I do believe
you should take a chance."

"Take a chance…" for some
reason, those words did seem to bring something almost close enough
for him to remember. Yozak nodded and then gave him a wink.

"If
you change your mind about going to town, Highness, do let me know."
Yozak drawled before going back towards the castle. Murata watched
him go for a few moments before he took a deep breath, snapped open
the seal and then took out the letter Daikenja had left for
him.

"When the dark wood fell before meAnd all the
paths were overgrownWhen the priests of pride say there is no
other wayI tilled the sorrows of stone

Though we share
this humble path, aloneHow fragile is the heartOh give these
clay feet wings to flyTo touch the face of the stars."

Murata
read the verses twice, briefly wondered why Daikenja had decided to
leave his advise in couplets, broke it into tiny pieces and threw
them to the wind, giving his former self a quite hearty
'son-of-a-bitch' that wasn't as felt as before he had read it
and was kind of more of a 'got the message, sheeze' and he turned
inside the castle, going through the hall Yozak had gone
by.

"Yozak!" Murata called when he saw the redhead man.
Yozak turned to look over his shoulder, hands inside his pockets and
Murata grinned. "I changed my mind."

The smile Yozak gave
him at that was almost worth it the headache the letter had brought
him.

Now, the fact that he conveniently forgot to tell the
others that the letter had been inoffensive? Made it more than worth
it.

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